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Unlock This CourseBy the summer of 1945 Japan was losing the war badly. Its navy was largely destroyed, American bombers were burning its cities, and shortages of food and fuel were severe. The Allies' Potsdam Declaration of 26 July demanded unconditional surrender. Japan's leaders did not accept it, and some in the army wanted to fight on.
On 6 August 1945 the USA dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. On 9 August it dropped a second on Nagasaki. An atomic bomb gets its power from splitting atoms, so one bomb could do the damage of hundreds of ordinary bombs.
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Tens of thousands of people died at once. Many more died in the following weeks from burns and radiation sickness. Estimates suggest that by the end of 1945 about 140,000 had died in Hiroshima and about 70,000 in Nagasaki. Most were ordinary civilians. Survivors, the hibakusha, lived with injuries and illness for years afterwards.
Most of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed or damaged, and large parts of Nagasaki too. Homes, hospitals and transport were wrecked, so survivors lacked shelter, food and medical care.
The bombs shocked Japan's leaders, but they were not the only blow. On 8 August the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and on 9 August its army attacked Manchukuo. Historians still debate how much each event mattered in persuading Japan to give in.
Japan's leaders were split. Some wanted to accept the Potsdam terms if the Emperor's position was kept. Others wanted to fight on. On the night of 9-10 August the Emperor, Hirohito, known as the Showa Emperor, broke the deadlock and said the war must end. Even so, a final decision was not made until 14 August.
At noon on 15 August 1945 Japan's people heard the Emperor on the radio for the first time. The message had been recorded the day before. He spoke in formal court language, which many listeners found hard to follow, and he never used the word "surrender". He said the war had "developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage" and spoke of "a new and most cruel bomb". He said he had decided to pave the way for peace by "enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable". Some young army officers tried to seize the recording to stop the broadcast, but they failed.
The formal surrender was signed on 2 September 1945 aboard the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The empire that had grown since 1895 was gone, and the war was over.
External influences: American ships forced Japan open in 1853; American bombs and surrender ended its empire in 1945.
Military expansionism: from seclusion to a world power (wars with China and Russia, Korea, Manchukuo) and then defeat.
The economy: from a farming country to a major industrial power, but one that was still hit hard by the Depression.
Society: the samurai lost their status, mass culture grew in the cities, and by the 1940s daily life was controlled for the war.
Politics: from the shogun to rule in the Emperor's name, a Diet, party government, then military dictatorship.
Continuity: the Emperor stayed at the centre of the nation throughout, and he was the one who ended the war.
How significant were external influences in the changes that took place in Japan in the years 1853-1945? [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own.
External influences were very significant, because they opened Japan in 1853 and helped to end its empire in 1945, but they were not the only force for change.
The first change came from outside. When Perry arrived in 1853 with warships, the shogun's government could not resist. The treaties that followed, such as the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, ended seclusion, and the unequal treaties and rising prices angered many samurai. That weakened the Tokugawa, so the outside world began a chain of events that led to the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
The Meiji leaders then used foreign ideas on purpose. The Iwakura Mission toured the West in 1871-73, and Ito Hirobumi studied European constitutions before the Meiji Constitution of 1889. Fear of the West pushed Japan to build factories, a conscript army and a navy, which led to victories over China in 1895 and Russia in 1905. So outside pressure helped produce both modernisation and expansion. Some things did not change, because the Emperor stayed at the centre of the state and the Meiji leaders ruled in his name.
However, many changes came from inside Japan. Choshu and Satsuma overthrew the Tokugawa. The oligarchs chose which Western ideas to copy, and kept the Emperor at the centre. In the 1930s it was Japanese officers, angry at the Depression and party politicians, who ended party government after the murder of Inukai in 1932, and the army, not foreigners, seized Manchuria in 1931.
Outside forces returned in 1945. Allied bombing, the Soviet attack and the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed Japan's cities and empire, and the Emperor's broadcast of 15 August accepted defeat. Yet this was the result of Japan's own earlier decisions, such as joining the Axis and attacking Pearl Harbour in 1941. The Emperor, the one figure who had stayed in place since 1868, was the one who finally ended the war.
Overall, external influences were the most significant at the two turning points, 1853 and 1945, because Japan could not have chosen these changes alone. But in between, the speed and direction of change depended on Japan's own leaders. My criterion is who had the power to decide: outsiders began and ended the story, but Japanese people shaped everything in between.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers the whole date range, goes beyond both bullets, weighs outside and inside causes and gives a judgement based on a stated criterion.
In a change-over-time essay, cover the whole date range in order, and put in a counter-case. Here that means the changes made by the Japanese themselves.